


Their Eyes All Aglow

by Sinna



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-26
Updated: 2013-12-26
Packaged: 2018-01-06 05:05:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1102756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sinna/pseuds/Sinna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regulus and Sirius and Christmases spent apart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Their Eyes All Aglow

**Author's Note:**

> It's a little late, but Merry Christmas!  
> For the purposes of this story, Regulus' birthday is in early December, and his death is in late December/early January.

When Regulus was thirteen years old, Sirius decided to spend Christmas with James Potter. He didn’t ask, just got off the train and went home with the Potters before anyone realized he was gone.

The Black household was cold and silent without him, every last bit of cheer stripped away. Regulus had gotten used to not having Sirius around all the time, but Sirius had always come home for Christmas before. It hurt, a little, knowing that Sirius would rather be with James, but Regulus wasn’t stupid. He heard the screaming matches every time Sirius and Mother came into contact. Considering the way she was stewing right now, it was probably for the best. Still, Regulus couldn’t help but feel a little bit lonely without Sirius shrieking Christmas carols at the top of his lungs.

On Christmas morning, he was woken up by a ball of feathers dropping onto his face.

“Get away,” he groaned, raising his hands to shield his face. Opening his eyes, he found himself facing a very determined, very familiar owl.

“Achilles?”

It took him a few moments to realize that Sirius’ owl was carrying a small package and a card. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he discovered that it was only a bit after 3 am.

“I’ll bet he sent it at midnight,” Regulus sighed.

He opened the card.

_Merry Christmas, Reg!_

_Sorry I’m not there. You know it’s not you. It’s Mum._

_I really wish you were here. I’m having so much fun. We made cookies and had a snowball fight and Mr. and Mrs. Potter took us to Muggle London to go Christmas shopping!_

_I saw this and knew you would like it, but I also know Mum and Dad wouldn’t approve, so I’m sending it separately from their gifts. Not that they’ll approve of their gifts either, but that’s the whole point. Anyway, I hope you’re not too bored without me. See you after break!_

_Your awesome brother,_

_Sirius_

Setting aside the card with a small smile, Regulus opened the package.

A can of… nuts?

“What on earth?” he whispered.

With a sigh, he unscrewed the lid.

“Ahhh!”

It took only a moment for him to realize that the snake that popped out of the can was made out of fabric.

“Jerk,” he muttered, with no real malice.

He reached for the notebook he kept on his bedside table and pulled out a sheet of paper.

“Merry Christmas to you, too,” he wrote.

He gave the note to Achilles and sent the bird back to Sirius.

 

When Regulus was fourteen, Sirius spent Christmas with the Potters again. No one was really surprised. Regulus had heard his mother say that Sirius should just move in with the blood traitors if he was so fond of them. Sirius would probably agree with her about that. It wasn’t like he ever came home, except once or twice over the summer to take advantage of his parents’ money to buy school supplies.

Regulus was still awake at 3 am on Christmas morning, and he kept his window open despite the chill. He would have felt extremely foolish, if Achilles hadn’t swooped inside at exactly 3:07.

He stroked the owl’s soft feathers

“Hello, Achilles. What do you have for me?”

The package was larger this time, and came without a note. What was there to say?

Regulus tore it open. A scarf this time. Green, and made to look like a snake. How ridiculous. The tag on it also revealed it as muggle-made.

“Are you trying to get me in trouble?” Regulus wondered.

But he folded the scarf and dug out the box where he’d hid last year’s present. With a sigh, he put it away.

He attached Sirius’ present to Achilles. It was nothing special. Just some Christmas cookies Regulus had snuck away from the Malfoy’s Christmas Eve party. They were Sirius’ favorite, though, so they would probably be appreciated.

 

When Regulus was fifteen, Sirius finally left for good. Regulus watched him go from his upstairs window and tried to tell himself he didn’t care. He watched Mother burn his former brother off the tapestry without blinking an eye, and never let himself cry over the loss.

That Christmas, he went to bed early and locked the window.

But come 3 am, he was lying awake staring at the ceiling, and he knew he was waiting. He jumped out of bed the instant he heard something tapping at the window. With a sigh, he opened it.

“Come on in, Achilles.”

The package was small this time. Regulus opened it to find a series of interconnected rings and a note that read:

_Bet you can’t get them apart without using magic!_

He sent Achilles home with an angry note and spent the next hour trying to unlock the pieces, before giving up in frustration and dropping the puzzle in the box with presents from the previous two years.

 

When Regulus was sixteen, he didn’t bother trying to pretend. What Mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. He sat in the window seat reading one of his textbooks, until he heard the telltale flutter of wings.

“Merry Christmas, Achilles.”

He offered the owl a treat, which was eagerly accepted.

“What have you got for me this time, Sirius?” he wondered aloud as he opened the package.

Inside the box were several books, clearly of muggle origin.

_Dear Reg,_

_Thought you might rethink your position on muggles if you learned more about them. I tried to pick stuff I thought you’d like. Give them a chance, please?_

_Love,_

_Sirius_

Regulus looked over them, then looked at the newly acquired mark on his forearm.

He sent Achilles home with a note saying:

_Thanks, but I’m not interested._

Despite that, he was finished all of the books Sirius had sent by the end of the break.

 

When Regulus was seventeen, he already knew he was trapped. Caught up in a world he wasn’t sure he should be part of. As if that changed anything. Sirius’ face when he discovered the dark mark had hurt, but there was no chance of going back.

He didn’t expect a present, so the knocking on his window in the early hours of Christmas morning surprised him.

“Achilles?”

Even more shockingly, the owl had a large package with him. Regulus opened the window.

“Sorry I don’t have a treat. I didn’t expect you here. I would’ve expected Sirius to hate me by now.”

He relieved Achilles of the package, and opened it, curious to see what Sirius could have sent him.

“Muggle clothing?”

He held up the odd garments. A note slipped out of one of the pockets.

_Just in case you need to get out._

Regulus couldn’t help but sneer. How uncharacteristically sentimental of his brother.

Still, he tucked the clothing into the same box with all the other presents from Sirius. Maybe his brother wasn’t the only one with a sentimental streak.

 

When Regulus was eighteen, he didn't even notice that Sirius didn't send a present. Too absorbed in planning, he completely ignored the clock striking three, and then four.

When Sirius heard the news of Regulus' death, he looked guiltily at the small package still on his bookshelf, and wondered if it could have changed things.

 

It was Christmas Eve before Sirius gathered the courage to enter his brother’s room again. He smiled at the sign on the door. Regulus had made that when he was twelve. When the rift between them had just begun to open. Looks like he had never taken it down, even when Sirius was no longer a concern.

Strengthening his resolve, Sirius turned the doorknob.

Everything in the room was exactly as Regulus must have left it. A thick layer of dust coated every surface, but other than that he might have stepped back in time.

“Merry Christmas, Reg,” he remarked, as if his brother hadn’t been dead for years.

He wasn’t sure what he was looking for in here. An apology inscribed in the walls?

He picked up a picture from the dresser and brushed away the dust with his sleeve. A younger Sirius and Regulus stared out at him, playfully trying to shove each other out of the frame. It had been taken the first day of Regulus’ first day at Hogwarts. Back when his family had thought his sorting into Gryffindor was still a treatable disease.

“I miss you,” Sirius admitted. “We treated each other horribly, but you were still my brother. I never wanted you to die. I’m sorry it had to be like this.”

The corner of a cardboard box sticking out from under the bed caught his eye. He sat on the bed, throwing up a cloud of dust, and pulled the box out in front of him, wondering what Regulus might be keeping in here. It wasn’t like Regulus to just have boxes of stuff lying around.

Whatever he might have been expecting, it wasn’t what he found. All of the Christmas presents he had sent to Regulus over the years.

The dumb scarf, the books with all their spines cracked, the puzzles, everything.

Except the muggle clothes. Regulus must have gotten rid of them.

Unless…

He dug into the box until he found a scrap of paper. The note he’d included with the clothes. On the back, in Regulus’ shaky handwriting:

_Thank you, Sirius._

Sirius rested his head in his hands, pretending the tears running down his cheeks were from laughter.

“Damn you, little brother.”


End file.
